User:Montgomery15/sandbox/John Sutton

John Sutton

John Sutton

Born	1980 or 1981 (age 34 or 35) Drogheda, Republic of Ireland
Sport country	Ireland
Best ranking finish	Last 128 (four times)

John Sutton is an Irish business development manager and amateur snooker player who currently resides in Drogheda.

Career

Born in 1980 or 1981, Sutton first played competitive snooker at the 1999 World Under-21 Championship, where he beat Sayed El-Khodiery of Egypt 5–1 in the last 32, but lost his last-16 match 4–5 to Gerrit bij de Leij.

Having begun a career in business, Sutton played in five Pontin's International Open Series events during the 2005/2006 season, attempting to qualify for the professional main tour. He progressed to the quarter-finals at Event 4, losing 1–5 to Colm Gilcreest, but lost in the last 32 at Events 3, 6 and 8, to Stephen Rowlings, Ian Brumby and Munraj Pal respectively.

With the advent of the Players Tour Championship in the 2010/2011 season, Sutton entered Event 5, overcoming Michael Wild 4–3, but was forced to withdraw from his scheduled first-round match against Adrian Gunnell.

He next played competitively in the 2011/2012 season, reaching the last 128 at four PTC events; he lost 1–4 in Event 1 to Stephen Lee, 3–4 to Michael White in Event 5, 2–4 to John Higgins in Event 7 and 1–4 to Jamie Burnett in Event 8. However, his Q-School efforts culminated in defeat in the last 16 at Event 3, 3–4 to Joel Walker having surrendered a 3–0 advantage. Sutton's performances that season were not sufficient for him to qualify as a professional.

Sutton found better form at Q-School in 2014, defeating Liam Highfield 4–2, Shane Castle 4–0 and Michael Tomlinson 4–1 to reach the quarter-finals of Event 1; he required only one more win to qualify for the main tour, but lost 0–4 to Craig Steadman.

During the 2014/2015 season, Sutton reached the last 64 at the 2014 Riga Open, losing 0–4 to Ricky Walden, and was invited to participate in qualifying for the International Championship and the UK Championship. However, he lost 0–6 to Burnett and Ding Junhui respectively.

Match-fixing allegations and conviction

In February 2015, Sutton was charged by the WPBSA with 'breaching betting rules' following an inquiry into his defeat to Burnett at the International Championship, and was suspended from competition. Two months later, he was found guilty of match-fixing, and in May 2015, snooker's governing body banned him from the competitive game for six years, also fining him £5,000.